Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
11/19/99
Contacts:
Dennis Mashek, Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy
Foundation, (319) 562-3763
Robert Denson, Northeast Iowa Community College, (800)
728-2256, ext. 201.
Paul Brown, ISU Extension, Northeast Iowa Area, (319)
296-4025
Barb Parrish, ISU Extension, Northeast Iowa Area, (319)
296-4025
Vilsack Proclaims Dairy Laboratory a "Center of Excellence"
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Gov. Tom Vilsack proclaimed a proposed dairy education, applied research and demonstration laboratory in northeast Iowa a center of excellence for value-added agriculture during a special meeting at the State Capitol Nov. 17.
The Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation, a grassroots citizens group, will build the dairy laboratory near Calmar. The foundation is partnering with North Iowa Community College (NICC) and Iowa State University. ISU Extension, the colleges of agriculture and veterinary medicine, and the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station are involved in the initiative.
"This is at the center of our economic development strategy," Vilsack said. "Value-added agriculture has got to be a critical component" in any future economic development initiative. He said he was happy to sign the proclamation because it was an opportunity to show a specific example of a center of excellence.
He said the state is committed to this initiative and will be providing financial assistance. Although he could not state a specific amount at this time, he said the financial assistance would be "significant and substantial" and would move the process forward. Vilsack said he will announce the amount of funding in a separate news conference in the next few weeks.
"There is legislative support for this," he said. "This is a great project" that marries the state's educational strengths to its agricultural strengths.
The dairy laboratory will help NICC and ISU train the next generation of dairy entrepreneurs. "This facility is to train and educate people whether they will milk 40 cows or 10,000," said dairy foundation president Dennis Mashek, Calmar. The objective is to educate people and keep them dairying in Iowa.
NICC president Robert Denson said they expect to have 100 students per year in the program. It will offer technical dairy programs using hands-on instruction for secondary, post-secondary and adult education, according to Paul Brown, ISU Extension's northeast area education director. In addition, the laboratory will conduct site-specific applied research and demonstrations in dairy and forage production and other topics relevant to northeast Iowa.
According to Brown, a fundraising campaign in the 17 northeast Iowa counties could raise $500,000 to $1 million. The total price tag for the project is $4.1 million, Denson said. Several sizable donations have been collected already. The foundation will close on the property on Nov. 19, and site work already is in progress. Construction is set to begin in March 2000, and the first cows will be milked there in September 2000.
"I want to congratulate all the local partners that have been involved in the initiative," Vilsack said. The initiative is "absolutely value-added" and "obviously supported" at the grass roots, he noted.
Denson and Mashek presented Vilsack with a painting of the proposed laboratory. "We will proudly display this," Vilsack said.
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